The Hard Way (2019)

One of the things I said earlier this year was I would make an effort to get more Michael Jai White on the site, and this is another in that effort. I wanted to get it in because it looked like Netflix was dumping some of its films, but I've since learned that, while this isn't a Netflix original, it is one they picked up the distribution rights to, so it'll probably there for a long time--if it ever gets taken down. Either way, we've watched it, so let's wee how it went.

The Hard Way has Michael Jai White as a former special forces guy whose brother is killed in Eastern Europe, so he goes there to find out what happened to him. As he starts to unravel the truth, things don't look good--for the people who were involved in his brother's killing that is, because White is on the revenge warpath. There to help him out is Luke Goss, playing that guy with the five o'clock shadow and knit cap who wears a leather jacket over a hoodie. As White's brother's former partner, he wants revenge too. Looking at that cover, I wonder who the revenge will be targeted at? Who's that third actor there?...

For a 2019 DTV actioner, this wasn't horrible. A big part of that is White carries it, and director Keoni Waxman let's him carry it, which really helps. I liked Luke Goss in support, I just don't get why he has to have an American accent all the time. All that being said, like these modern DTV actioners tend to do, this one got dark. We see one guy getting tortured, we see a family get executed by masked gunmen in their home, and White and Goss's love interests get killed, seemingly for no reason--it's not like White needed more of a reason for revenge. Still, the fights were good, as was the action, and sometimes with these modern DTV flicks, if you can at least get that, you should walk away happy.

Michael Jai White proves once again that he's a bad, bad man. One of the things he does which I really love, is he keeps the "art" in martial arts, making his fights theatrical and entertaining to watch while he's taking out baddies. This is now his 16th film on the DTVC, which begs the question: is the Hall of Fame on the horizon? Tags aren't the only thing, age is another, and while White would be the youngest Hall of Famer, he also would be older than Van Damme, Dolph, Lorenzo Lamas, and Gary Daniels were when they became Hall of Famers. So then we look at contributions to the world of DTV, and I think he has that too, especially with Black Dynamite, one of those seminal DTV flicks that has gone down as one of the best ever. Probably the closest comp to him is Mark Dacascos, and he's not in yet, but maybe both need stronger consideration as we get into our induction process this October.

I keep banging this drum about Luke Goss, but I think this movie more than any highlights my issue with him having an American accent. It's not that it's a bad American accent--on the contrary, it's really good, which I guess is why when he's cast he uses it so much--but I just feel like as an American he's not really set apart from the other myriad American DTV actors out there, but with his natural English accent that would set him apart. In this film it made zero sense, because it took place in Eastern Europe. It's just as believable that he'd be a Brit as he'd be an American, so why not just be a Brit? I think we've maybe seen him in 5 or 6 films here at the DTVC, and the only film he did where he used his natural accent was Tekken, and it was great! Hopefully he'll do more of that in future roles, but two others I have in the can, War Pigs and Cartels, both feature him with an American accent, so it may never happen again.

This is the seventh Keoni Waxman film we've done at the DTVC, but only the third that doesn't have Seagal in it, the others being Hunt to Kill and Sweepers. We always joke that he's the Seagal Whisperer, because he seems to get the best out of him when he works with him; but seeing him here in working with White, he does the same job in accentuating what White does best. I think out of the 7 Waxman films we've done to this point, this is my favorite, and maybe the biggest reason why is how he sets White up as a bad, bad man, and then lets White have at it, and we as a viewer get to enjoy it. Hopefully we'll see more White/Waxman collaborations in the future.

Finding out that this was distributed by Netflix, I decided to see if it was available anywhere else, and it doesn't look like it. As I've discussed when looking at other Netflix films, it's an odd thing, that when Netflix makes it--or distributes it in this case--that's it, you can stream it on Netflix with your monthly subscription, and when they decide to up the fee, you need to pay, or you don't get the movie. No blu-ray, no prime, no Tubi. From a filmmaker's standpoint I wonder how they feel about that. Is it better to have it constantly turning up on people's suggestions when they log into Netflix, or have it in as many places as possible so people have many choices? I personally prefer the latter, and I'm not even saying it has to be on blu-ray, but Prime, Tubi, Vudu, whatever in addition to Netflix would be nice.

But people have heard me make that rant before, so with that we wrap this up. I think if you're looking for more Michael Jai White, this one is pretty good. If you're already paying for Netflix anyway, you might as well give it shot.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9815714

The Swordsman (1992)

I'm not sure why I've never reviewed this one before. It's right in that early 90s Lamas sweetspot, where he had the hair and the leading roles to match. Unlike Final Impact, which I thought I'd already done, this one I just totally missed on. I guess now's as good a time as any to get back on the train and make this one happen. In addition to us, our friends Ty and Brett at Comeuppance have covered this as well, so you can go to their site to see what they thought--also TV Guide reviewed it. Their site is a bit tricky to navigate, but it was cool to see their name on the list of external reviews.

The Swordsman is not a film about Lorenzo Lamas's many relationships with women in Hollywood, but, rather, is about how he's the reincarnation of Alexander the Great, and he subconsciously wants his sword. How does he get it? By entering the seedy world of underground fencing. There he encounters Michael Champion, a man made for this kind of baddie. Could they have met sometime in the past? In addition to this, Lamas is working with Claire Stansfield, who's an archaeologist and museum curator who also believes in reincarnation. Get your eye protection ready when these loose ends come together.

So you've read that synopsis, and now you're curious how the film was. I get it. As you can imagine, even at a 92-minute runtime, which this film clocked in at, it's hard for a plot that convoluted to not get in the way. Underground fencing circuit is something that either sounds great on paper, or is a great Peter Griffin 15-second aside joke on Family Guy, but when you're seeing it in front of you, with Lamas in his bandana and fencing outfit, it's hard to take it seriously. I wish the film had a better budget, because it would have been nice to see Lamas as Alexander the Great conquering stuff. I think the problem is, the sword fight is hard to make action-packed, because it's so violent and deadly, that it can only have one outcome, and we know it's coming. With hand-to-hand stuff, unless there's a neck break or someone gets kicked out of a window from high up, we don't need to have that final outcome, which allows for some suspense in the actual fight. Maybe this is me just trying to make sense of a film sauteed in wrong sauce.

The Lamas was pretty sweet though. As I said, the early 90s was a great time for him, as we had more films like this where he was out in front in the lead, full man mane, shirt optional. If you look at his 1992, it was like a Scott Adkins 2019: he had this, Final Impact, Snake Eater III, CIA: Code Name Alexa, and then an Italian TV movie that I've never seen called Flesh and the Devil. At the same time, Renegade was starting as well, which is what I knew him best for at this time--it was like I saw him in Renegade, then saw him on the covers of movies at the video store and figured I'd check those out too. I've given him a bit of a hard time for the scant parts he's had in his more recent roles, but considering what his output was during this era, I realize I should be more forgiving. He definitely put in the work.

As a fan of another syndicated series, Highlander, which was totally centered on sword fighting, I think I have some ideas on why this didn't work. First off, that was a five-act show, which forced it to have things happening at the end of each act to keep us from leaving during the commercials. This was a movie, so it didn't have that impetus to keep things exciting at regular intervals. Also, Duncan MacLeod was always having to deal with things non-sword fight related. Maybe this could have used a car chase to liven it up a bit. On top of that, they weren't just fencers, they were people with different swords who chopped each other's heads off. The one thing they did get right along with Highlander though: the hero's man mane. Can't ever forget that.

The idea of the seedy underground fencing ring is a concept that I think could have used more exploring. In this film, it's Michael Champion's means to an end as far as finding the sword and drawing Lamas out for their immortal reincarnation battle. How would it work just as a device in and of itself? Maybe a college fencing team at a fictitious private institution. Some kids get an offer from a seedy fellow from the underworld. We have a hero, a young, naive kid with a lot of talent. Does he get enticed to join in order to get some money to impress a girl he likes? Maybe he's from the wrong side of the tracks himself and he has demons to fight? How does the killing happen though? I guess with anything action related, we can find a way to fit that in.

Claire Stansfield is back, this time as the archaeologist/Lamas love interest. We've seen here here a few times before, in the Dolph flick Sweepers (which according to IMDb was her last feature film role), Best of the Best II, and the Shaq film Steel. There's a sense that she's here to add a touch of class to the proceedings, like it can't be that ridiculous with Claire Stansfield as an archaeologist saying everything is okay. Unfortunately though, her character devolves into damsel in distress-dom, and with that goes her ability to prop it up any further. You did the best you could though, Claire, and we appreciate your efforts.

And with that, let's wrap this one up. For Lamas's 90s output, it's not his best, but it's not his worst either. It has its draggy moments as the convoluted plot needs room to unfold, but we also have the fun of Lamas in his man mane-iest, Claire Stansfield giving the film a touch of class, and Michael Champion as the exact kind of baddie a movie like this needs. On that score, it can be a bit of a fun nostalgia time waster, but I wouldn't rent it for that, rather stream it for free instead if you can.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108268

Irresistable Force (1993)

This is one I've been trying to get my hands on for a long time, and thanks to YouTube, I was finally able to make it happen. This is one of those Rothrock flicks that, ten years ago when we were rolling along with the DTVC, I couldn't get and had to go without. Now through sites like YouTube, Tubi, and Prime, we're getting a lot more of this stuff available, which only helps us in spotlighting talents like Cynthia Rothrock more. This was also covered by our friends Ty and Brett at Comeuppance Reviews, so you can go to their site to see what they thought as well.

Irresistible Force was a failed TV pilot featuring Stacy Keach as a veteran cop close to retirement and looking for a cushy gig so he can make it to retirement safely. Part of his plan is to request a female partner, because they're statistically less likely to be reckless. Problem is, he gets Cynthia Rothrock for his partner, and reckless is her middle name. When the two have to go to the mall to pick things up, they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, as the place is being taken over by a baddie and his terrorist group. Now it's Die Hard in a Mall with only Rothrock on the inside and Keach on the outside to stop them. The terrorists won't know what hit them.

This is pretty sweet for what it was, a good old fashioned 90s TV movie actioner. Not sure why this wasn't picked up by CBS, because it would have ran well on a Saturday night with shows like Martial Law and Walker, Texas Ranger; or maybe on a Friday as a lead-in to Nash Bridges. Keach and Rothrock have all the chemistry you need, they both also hold up their end of the deal in terms of the action, all you needed was a stable of character actor heavies to come in each week with some villainous plot that Rothrock and Keach need to root out and stop. We'd be watching reruns on Tubi or FilmRise along with Renegade and Hunter. Missed opportunity for sure.

One of the things we talk about in the DTV world is how you have big screen actors that float down into DTV, and then you have stars that start in DTV and never seem to be able to crossover into Hollywood leading roles, and Rothrock falls into that latter category. A TV show like this is the kind of near miss that you look back on and say "ah, if only!" Just the same, Rothrock has had one of the best DTV action careers period, and the hours of enjoyment she's given us in her great performances over the years isn't something to ignore, it's just hard not to think what if she was on a major network TV show with millions of people watching her every week. I feel like it still could happen though, considering the explosion of TV shows out there now, and how network TV is going in more of the action/detective realm. Cynthia Rothrock as a Navy cop on NCIS Philadelphia? Count me in!

We don't often see Stacy Keach and his fantastic mustache on here, as he tends to do more Hollywood pictures, but when we do he's usually fantastic, and this film is no exception. I just loved the presence he had, every scene he was in was great. You have to wonder what it was that caused them to not run with this. Was it too violent? Was Die Hard in a Mall seen as too derivative? Even if it wasn't a weekly series, multiple TV movies would have worked too for the early 90s. Either way, you can't go wrong with the Keach, the people making this had to feel like they were a shoo-in here, and to not have it get picked up had to have been a shock.

Speaking of Die Hard in a Mall, in the 90s there were so many Die Hard paradigms in films, so I could see how this one would have felt derivative, especially since the baddie had a distinct Hans Gruber quality to him. When I look at any Die Hard-esque flicks, I look for what new they bring to the table, and this gives us some sweet Rothrock fights--especially one where she uses Pan Fu in a kitchen supply store to dispatch her baddies; and then married with the no-nonsense just wants to get his pension Keach who knows how to get stuff done, it does transcend the material for me. By the same token, there is a lot of well-worn territory here, not just with the baddie, but the henchmen, the cat and mouse game, things like the bombs and terrorist demands. I can see how people wouldn't have been as enamored with this, which I think is too bad.

Here's a great example of that well-worn territory, the baddie giving a message on multiple TV screens all stacked up. Okay, I guess after all this I can see how a studio may have passed. It's a shame though, it had so much potential. I mean, were Walker or Marshall Law any less derivative? Were their storylines that groundbreaking? Walker was just an omnipotent Chuck Norris driving around in a pick-up truck beating people up. I'm sure if I went through the episodes of that show I'd find the multiple TV cliches used, right?

All right, before this turns into an indictment of network TV in the 90s, we might as well wrap this up. This is a fun watch, even if it is a bit derivative. Rothrock and Keach bring it, and sometimes that's all you need, it's okay if the script is paint-by-numbers after that.

For more information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107229

Ninja Strike Force (1988)

I can't believe, but this is actually the first time we've done a ninja film since I've been back from hiatus. We've actually done a non-ninja Godfrey Ho film before this, which is even crazier. This was one that I covered in a podcast with Jon Cross of the After Movie Diner, Miscellaneous Plumbing Fixtures, and Cross Talk, in part because he does a great Ninjavember celebration on AMD, which is something I really enjoy. Now the question is, did we enjoy this one?

Ninja Strike Force is another Godfrey Ho mash-up of an old film with some new ninja footage. In this one, ninja mainstay Richard Harrison (sans 'stache) is back, and needs to figure out how to beat the black ninja now that said black ninja has the sword of catastrophe. He knows of one man, who has forsaken his ninja past, but he has the answer. That man is in the other part of the mash-up, living in poverty and trying to make things work with his buddy and the developmentally delayed boy they've taken in. Can Harrison get the answers he needs before the black ninja kills all the ninjas?

I don't want to give it away, but the answer is "yes... kinda." And really, does it matter? From the moment this thing starts, you see white credits on a white background, meaning you don't see the credits. That's a warning, like if you don't think this is your kinda movie, pull the plug now instead of asking for your temporal refund after. For me, this delivered on that Godfrey Ho mash-up level. I don't know if I could do three of these back-to-back in a night, but mixed in with some other ninja flicks, like American Ninja 2 or Rage of Honor, it is a great addition to those as a different kind of ninja flick. Besides, how can you go wrong with those great headbands that say "ninja" on them?

When Jon was on, he quoted a Den of Geek article about Godfrey Ho's films. Here's what it said:

It isn’t really about whether these films as good or bad – they’re so far outside of what constitutes regular filmmaking that value judgements feel redundant. I think, deep down, especially as film grows arguably ‘safer’ by the year, some of us just crave a little cinematic anarchy.

I feel like that really sums up what these Godfrey Ho films are about. He takes these old films he got the rights to, and splices in scenes from two ninja movies he shot with Richard Harrison, to make twenty movies. To me there's nothing more gonzo or nothing that gets to the spirit of DTV more than this. I think the problem is, everyone thinks they're being ripped off, right? We're so jaded by seeing Seagal on the tin and we get the movie home and he's in it for twenty minutes and can't bother to do his reverse shots or overdubs. When we view it in the modern DTV light, Godfrey Ho's ninja films feel like he's trying to get one over on us. If we divorce ourselves from that though, there's something different going on here. This would be like if Keoni Waxman shot one movie with Seagal, and turned it into ten by splicing it into old telenovelas he got the rights to and dubbed the actors over to make his own stories. But again, we're so jaded, we'd only buy that if Waxman or the distributors sold it to us as something ironic. There's been a shifting of how we see movies like these recently though, and I think for me at least, that makes these even that much more fun.

Richard Harrison is the mainstay that these movies are most known for. The way he tells it, Ho asked him to shoot two ninja movies, and from those two he made 20, splicing them in with the old films he got the rights to. This is only the second one we've covered here, the other being Ninja: Silent Assassin. This won't be the last, that's for sure, but in going through Harrison's prodigious IMDb bio, there's a lot more beyond the Godfrey Ho flicks to look at. On that score, perhaps he has a point that Ho damaged his career with the way he made Harrison the star of many more ninja flicks than just the two he signed on for, because we now really know him for these more than anything else. We'll see if we can rectify that for you Mr. Harrison.

I went back to that Ninja: Silent Assassin review to see how I made sense of what I was seeing with Godfrey Ho that first time. I didn't get why we wasted so much time with the other story, why it wasn't just all ninjas. I had some understanding that this was how Ho made movies, but it didn't really make sense. Seeing this one, knowing what I was in for, I got it a little more. I think the big thing was Ho merged these two even better--there were scenes where we thought Harrison was actually talking with the star of the older movie--so I could appreciate the work that went into this project more. I have to be honest with myself: if Jean-Luc Godard had made this movie, I would have loved what he did and lauded it as genius, so at least on that level I have to appreciate what Ho is doing with these.

The situation with Richard Harrison also speaks to a point about Ho's films, and that is that you really can't do a film like this in the modern Hollywood system, in part because SAG would kill you if you did to one of their members what Ho does to Harrison and the people in the other films. The closest thing I can think to it is the second Swordsman movie, where they used footage of Lamas from the first one, then spliced it with new actors. And we also see in DTV where footage is borrowed from another movie and cut into the new one, like Agent Red using footage from Storm Catcher. But the idea that Ben Affleck could shoot Jersey Girl with Kevin Smith, and then Smith use that to make 20 more movies that he splices with old 60s B-movies, all of which Affleck has no say in what happens in them, sounds both fantastic and something I would totally understand if Affleck were pissed about it. It means that the anarchy that is Ho is something that probably exists in his space, sui generis, and not something we can replicate now. (Though considering Smith and Affleck are friends, maybe he would have been amenable to that...)

And with that, I wrap this up. While this is on Tubi, it's worth checking out. We all could use a little "cinematic anarchy" in our lives, and no one serves it up better than Ho. You can also check out the podcast to see what Jon and I thought about it, and thanks again to Jon for coming on, it was a great time as always!

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199846

Mankillers (1987)

I recently had Jacob Gustafson, author of Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1 on the podcast, and we looked at this film. After the Final Sanction post, I wanted to fulfill my promise to do more AIP, and thought that would be a good way to hold myself to that, but also because his book had a lot of AIP in it, it was good for me to get a better sense of these movies. In addition to me and the inclusion in Jacob's book, this has also been covered by Ty and Brett at Comeuppance, and robotGEEK's Cult Cinema, so you can go to their sites to see what they thought.

Mankillers follows AIP mainstay William Zipp as a former fed turned baddie who the feds want to catch. The problem is, as a former fed, he can smell an undercover fed a mile away. That's when the higher-ups call in his old partner to bring him down, and she gets the crazy Grinchy idea of going into a women's prison and taking the 12 worst offenders, and training them to take Zipp down. It's Dirty Dozen meets AIP, but when their training is cut short because the higher-ups want to take down Zipp now, our ladies are put to the test sooner than they expected. With the odds against them, can they beat Zipp and his army of baddies?

The cover of this leads one to believe this is an Andy Sidaris/Julie Strain style sexy actioner, and that isn't what it is. Yes, there's plenty of women clad the way you see above, but there's no sex, no nudity, nothing of that sort. What this is is an AIP actioner from 1987 that, without having a Z'Dar or a Cameron Mitchell or anyone like that, still works in that fun, AIP vein. Zipp as the baddie just straight kills it, whether it's the mullet or the slicked-back ponytail look, as he's doing enough blow to make Scarface uncomfortable and cutting guys up with a chainsaw, you can't help but love it. Yes, the premise is crazy, and yes you see things like the same guy killed twice, but when David Prior is giving us a shoot-em-up on a budget, I'll take all of it.

This is the second of Prior's three 1987 films we've covered here on the DTVC, the other being the cult classic Deadly Prey, and then the third, which we need to get to, is Killer Workout. This isn't the classic Deadly Prey is, and I think Final Sanction is probably the best next film to watch after that, but this one really works as well. I think I've said it before, when people think "Direct to Video Connoisseur," this is the exact movie they're looking at. In the past I did "wild card" posts to spotlight some theatrical junkers, or I took a look at The Irishman as a one-off, but really, this should be our bread and butter, and I'm going to make sure we get back to it more often, especially since a lot of the greats are on Prime right now.

Would you look at that? It's Peggy from Mannix! According to IMDb, this was her last film role, and what a movie to be in. Looking at Prior's age, you have to imagine that he grew up on stuff like Mannix and that inspired him to make the movies he made. To see Gail Fisher here brings that kind of influence full circle. Mannix was one of the best shows of the 70s, and it's on MeTV at like 2 or 3am, so you can still catch it. I had completely forgotten about it, but my wife found it, and she's a fan, so I started watching it again with her. Just typing this paragraph has the theme song in my head. Here's to you Gail Fisher, you were one of the greats.

We're a little over the 1000-post mark here at the DTVC, and the truth is, we don't have many films that pass the Bechdel Test--in fact, I could only think of three: Wild Girl Waltz, Venom, and I think Lethal. That's not a good percentage, so I should probably go back and look through the posts to see if any other do. The point I'm making is this one does. For those who don't know, the Bechdel Test is two named female characters, without any men, having a conversation, and not talking about men. It seems like such a low bar, but so few films meet it, especially in the DTVC world. And here's one that did, but it needed to be marketed to us as an Andy Sidaris action sex romp to get us to buy it.

Finally, when I did the Deadly Prey post, I mentioned the shot of a bottle of New York Seltzer I saw, and here we have another, as heroine Lynda Aldon is enjoying a bottle while watching the fed try to sneak onto her property. That wasn't the only great find in this though, you may have noticed I tagged DTVC Hall of Famer Art Camacho. In one of the battles the women had with Zipp's men, I saw someone that looked a lot like Camacho, and joked that he was in so many films, that he was even in this--then I looked through the cast on IMDb and found out it was him! When I went back through to get screengrabs, I couldn't find the scene he was in, but he was there, and I have IMDb to back me up.

Right now you can get this on Prime, also it's one of the few on AIP flicks on Tubi--and I believe the only David Prior one. On top of all that, it also has a blu-ray release. This is a fun 80s action romp as only Prior and AIP could give us, so it's worth checking out. Also worth checking out is Jacob Gustafson's book, Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1. The link to the book is on our DTVC Book Review page, and if you want more information, he goes into detail about it on the podcast episode, no. 68 "Mankillers," which you can get on TalkShoe, iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. The links are on the left side of the page.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093491

Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018)

Because I did Kickboxer: Vengeance, I figured I'd need to do this one as well. And from there, I decided to do both posts back to back to get them out of the way. Why make you wait for the sequel, right? This has been covered by many other people, including our good friend Mitch at the Video Vacuum, and also Simon Abrams did a write-up for Roger Ebert's site. You know it's big if you're covering a movie Roger Ebert's site is covering.

Kickboxer: Retaliation takes place a year or so after the first one. Alain Moussi is back as our hero, this time being kidnapped and whisked away to a Thai prison, where Christopher Lambert is forcing him to fight a giant from ESPN2's World's Strongest Man competitions. When the usual attempts at coercion don't work, Lambert goes back to the tried and true damsel in distress motif, kidnapping Moussi's wife, Sara Malakul Lane, reprising her role from the first one. To train Moussi to fight this mountain of a man, we have all nature of inmates, including Van Damme again, Mike Tyson, Ronaldinho, and Roy "Big Country" Nelson. Will Moussi prevail?

This was 110 minutes long. One of my biggest rules is anything over 88 minutes is borrowed time, and here we were at almost 2 hours for a standard prison forced to fight story. That's what made me like this one less than the previous one, because that one was a cool 90 minutes. For something as paint-by-numbers as this was, closing in on two hours is beyond excessive. The Coen Brothers were able to get Hail, Caesar! in under that time, and they weren't covering well-worn territory, and had an even more prodigious cast than this. There were some good fights, which were hampered a bit by slow motion affects, but still nice to see and something I can appreciate. The final fight between Moussi and the strongman went about 30 minutes, and really just involved a lot of hitting and the people getting hit spitting Hawaiian Punch out of their mouths. The reality is, this movie was just a better version of Bloodsport 2, but longer, which made it a worse version.

Van Damme is back in the role that IMDb said was originally supposed to be Tony Jaa's, and he was great again. I can't blame him for the fact that this was too long, though he was an executive producer, so maybe I can. When you look at his current stuff, he tends to err on the side of longer movies instead of tightening things up, so I could see him thinking 110 minutes was actually too short, why not make it two and 1/2 hours? One could make the case though that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning was five minutes longer, and I really liked that one. Yes, but that one was also covering new territory and doing new things with the characters. This is essentially Bloodsport 2, we knew where we were going, we knew what the end would be, so to delay us getting there any longer than we had to was excessive for me. One interesting thing to note with Van Damme as well: this is his 30th tag, but not official entrance into the 30 Club, because one of his tags is post 400, the Van Dame Film Fest. He'll get there soon enough though, I promise.

It's been over nine years since we last saw the film's other Hall of Famer, Christopher Lambert, here on the DTVC, which feels like too long. (The funny thing is I mentioned Hail, Caesar!, and he was in that as well.) Lambert is essentially playing the Ben Franklin role from Bloodsport IV, and it was fun to see him here as a baddie. I've looked through his IMDb, and a lot of his stuff is of the foreign language art house variety, which I enjoy, but doesn't really fit what we're doing here for DTV. One thing this had that was nice was a sword fight between Van Damme and Lambert. One thing it was missing which really disappointed me, was the two of them speaking in French to one another.

A fascinating aspect of Van Damme's career has been the DTV sequels to his movies that star someone other than him. We've talked about the Kickboxer and Bloodsport ones. There was also a Time Cop sequel and syndicated TV show. Universal Soldier first had made-for-TV sequels, then had two DTV sequels that did star him. And maybe when that happened it opened the door for him to try these two as well, because they are, essentially, DTV sequels, trading on a franchise name that he established theatrically. What's interesting is that in this age of franchises and using franchise names on the tin to draw streams and rentals, all but these and a Scott Adkins Hard Target sequel have disappeared. You'd think that someone would make a new Bloodsport or Universal Soldier, if only to trade on the name the way these are, but so far that hasn't happened. I guess we'll see.

While there are these Kickboxer reboots with Alain Moussi--and a third one is in development--there are reports that Albert Pyun was working with Sasha Mitchell to do their own Kickboxer sequels. How amazing would that be? The thing is, these new Kickboxer reboots would have a lot more resources than Pyun would have with his own, especially when he works independently--I bet this film's Hawaiian Punch budget would be more than the budget for an entire Pyun production. But if he can keep them between 80 and 90 minutes, I think they could give these a run for their money. (Seriously, every time someone in this film gets hit in the face, they spray this stream of Hawaiian Punch spit into the air. It's like they're using cases of it, or constantly chewing Cherry Starburst in order to produce that effect.)

And I guess this wraps it up. Like its predecessor, you can get this on Netflix. This wouldn't be a bad DTV actioner if it had a tighter runtime. We're covering ground that has been covered plenty of times before, which is fun, but maybe not almost two hours fun, if that makes sense. It is nice to see all the people in it though, and there were some good fight scenes. I also now have a hankering for Hawaiian Punch...

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5208950

Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016)

This is one of those ones that came out while I was on hiatus, but knew I needed to look at. I remembered it being advertised as a theatrical release, but never made it out to see it, and when I looked it up on IMDb, discovered it barely crossed a quarter of a million dollars worldwide. With all that star power, plus Van Damme being attached to it, what happened? Well, let's see if we can dive in and find out?

Kickboxer: Vengeance is a reboot of the Van Damme original, this time with Alain Moussi playing the Kurt Sloan character. After his brother, played by the late Darren Shahlavi, is killed in the ring by Tong Po when shady fight promoter Gina Carano sets up the match, Moussi vows revenge. So he goes to Thailand, gets beaten up by Tong Po, gets arrested, and then gets trained by Van Damme so he can win. Also, he meets a love interest in local police office Sara Malaku Lane, who is investigating Tong Po for a criminal operation he might be running. The question is, can Van Damme train Moussi well enough to beat the seemingly unbeatable Tong Po?

What do you think happened? Paint-by-numbers doesn't begin to describe this, and I guess for what it was, it wasn't bad. I really liked Van Damme as the trainer, that was probably the major standout. Beyond that, I was left wondering why this was made at all, because it didn't attempt to cover any new territory from the original. On the other hand, at a compact 90 minutes, it is good for a standard DTV fight film--the thing is, you could have called it any number of titles and it would've stood out as a solid Van Damme flick. I think that may be why this didn't do so hot in the theater, people probably looked at it and thought "I don't know who this Moussi guy is, and I don't get why Bautista is Tong Po, and I have the original Kickboxer on DVD, why don't I just watch that and not pay the exorbitant theater prices?" Beyond the fact that it has names in it, there isn't much to distinguish it from the Sasha Mitchell/Albert Pyun sequels, which I don't think Van Damme was going for when he signed on for this.

Van Damme as our film's one Hall of Famer does show up in a big way as the trainer. This is the problem though that you have when introducing us to someone new: the established name tends to overshadow them. It seems like a great idea at the time--make Van Damme the trainer--but when he's killing it in every scene while Moussi's trying to establish himself, it's hard for the audience to not just say "why isn't Van Damme training to fight Bautista?" I guess too there's the issue that Van Damme's character was killed off in the Pyun part two, so maybe they were afraid we'd cry foul if they brought him back when he was supposed to be dead and make a Universal Soldier style sequel. The thing is though, the two John Hyams sequels after that one did cover new territory, especially the second one; and Scott Adkins was established enough to be able to carry it and not be overshadowed by another great Van Damme performance. I read in the IMDb trivia that Van Damme wasn't even the original choice, it was supposed to be Tony Jaa, which is even crazier. At least with Van Damme we can say "you've done so many martial arts movies, we're okay with you being the trainer," but with Jaa all we would've thought is "why aren't you fighting Tong Po?"

I think the thing that would have made this something better and different would have been casting Gina Carano in the lead instead. That's doing something new with it. Carano is trained in Muay Thai, so she'd fit, and casting a female in the lead, especially one with the established star power of Carano, would take this franchise into the 21st century. Not only that, but her name would've gotten people into the theaters to see this. I'm not saying I don't like Moussi, on the contrary I think he's great, but he's also safe, and this is what safe got you, a standard solid Van Damme DTV flick that made a quart-million worldwide. I don't know if you'd have Carano fight Bautista, but why did we need Bautista as Tong Po anyway? Michel Qissi was only 6'2", that's plenty tall enough--actually what if Moussi had played the baddie, he's also 6'2". Now you can introduce Moussi, he takes his lumps by losing to Carano, and everyone's happy. Van Damme really took a chance with JCVD, it's a shame the people making this didn't here.

That's the problem with the binary zero-sum way we have of looking at things, if I say Carano would have been a better choice for the lead because it would have done something to push the franchise forward, it sounds like I'm saying I don't like Moussi, and that's not true. I thought he was great, and think he could be a great up-and-comer in the DTV action realm. Add him to the list after Adkins, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Matt Mullins, Natalie Burn, Stu Bennett--and now it looks like Carano is doing more DTV stuff too. It's a big break for him to get this franchise, and I think it'll be interesting to see what he does from here.

Finally, it looks like this was the last feature film that Darren Shahlavi did before he passed in 2015. I said in the Pound of Flesh post that it was a shame, because he was starting to really break through. He has only a small part here, being the brother who's killed by Tong Po to spark Moussi's revenge quest. According to IMDb, Scott Adkins was originally offered this part, and he said no. The reality is, with what this turned out to be, Adkins was too big for a part like that, so it was good he turned it down; but for Shahlavi, someone still trying to get to where Adkins was, this was a step in the right direction, and it's a shame that we'll never see where the rest of the steps were going to take him. He may not have had the films or influence to merit entry into the DTVC Hall of Fame, but he is included in our Legends Who Have Left US page, so at least we've been able to honor him there.

On that note, let's wrap this up. This isn't horrible, it's good for a standard DTV fight film. It would have been nice if they did something new with it, especially since they're rebooting a franchise as iconic as Kickboxer, and the fact that they didn't has me wondering why they decided to reboot it at all; but take the name away and forget it's a reboot of something, and it works. Also, getting it on Netflix where I'm paying less per month to stream all their films as opposed to paying more than that for one movie ticket to see it in theater makes me a bit more forgiving.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3082898